What happens after Jan 8 ?

[Guest]

<img src="graemlins/sad.gif" border="0" alt="[sad]" /> <p>So the Club will be wound up next Tuesday then!<p>What happens after that? Is there a new consortium ready to take over? <p>Any chance of some answers from anyone, as it's all gone very quiet!!<p>Is there anymore we Supporters can do?

[HelenC]

G.Q's right. Now the s**t is really hitting the fan alls gone quiet!

If the club is wound up will we not be able to play footie anymore or what? Us fans have the right and deserve to know the truth from the club and that doesnt seem to be happening.Most of us have a rough idea but really need to know more.<p> <img src="graemlins/help.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="graemlins/help.gif" border="0" alt="" />

[GHA EFM]

From what I can decipher, the running of the club will be transferred to a new company, as long as the creditors are satisfied with this, financially, I think.<p>Don't quote.<p>Long Live GHA!!!<p> <img src="graemlins/devil.gif" border="0" alt="" />

[Rob_the_Saint]

I imagine there will be a deadline after Jan 8 by which time all football creditors must be paid off and all non-football creditors (Harding? Inland Revenue?) must be happy with their arrangements before any transfer of ownership takes place. In the meantime, hopefully the League will allow us to continue playing.<p>Again, don't quote me on any of this.<p>THE SAINTS ARE DEAD. LONG LIVE THE SAINTS!!<p> <img src="graemlins/queen.gif" border="0" alt="[queen]" />

[R Zimmerman]

Well if it is our final week, which I hope to God it isn't, what better way will there be to bow out than with a win, at home, over our local rivals Boreham Wood.

So everyone get behind the team this weekend with a lot of singing, COME ON EVERYONE, AND COME ON YOU SAINTS!!

[Guest]

As a first time poster but a relatively regular fan, it does worry me that nothing seems to be in hand. You are saying above that a new company can/will take over the club. WHAT NEW COMPANY is my question? I have heard nothing in the press, on the website or on the various forums that have been in use over the last few months to suggest that there IS a new company simply waiting in the wings to take up the reigns. If there is anyone in the know, please put my mind at rest. If that's not the case, I'm extremely worried that Saturday's game (prior to some form of re-birth perhaps next season or the season after) will be our last.<p>Someone must know something....some of us are very worried. Please let us know if anything is happening. Surely this club can't just peter out? This certainly didn't happen at Aylesbury. They were visible. To the naked eye (tell me I'm wrong PLEASE), nothing seems to be happening here.

[GHA EFM]

They have the internet in the Carribean do they Lee?<p>Long Live GHA!!!<p> <img src="graemlins/devil.gif" border="0" alt="" />

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

We'll take out Harding!

[HelenC]

<img src="graemlins/cry.gif" border="0" alt="" />

Thought you lot used to like Harding?!

Just to second Zimmerman's point. We all hope this isnt our last game (if it does go ahead!) but a win would be nice. Bring all your friends and support the Saints with lots of singing and lets create a great atmosphere. Lets hear it for the boys!<p>On the financial side, everyone is worried and only 1 or 2 people know exactly what is going on. None of us want to lose our club, it would be disastrous for it to all go wrong when we have so much prospect and support waiting in the wings. I know things can be the same as a couple of years ago just given the chance. But who is going to help us with that?<p> <img src="graemlins/help.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <p> <img src="graemlins/cry.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="graemlins/cry.gif" border="0" alt="" /><p>[ 04 January 2002: This message was edited by: HelenC ]</p>

[AFF]

Hmmn.

According to the Supervisor, the petition to be heard in the High Court next week is for the winding up of the company. The company was unable to, or chose not to, fulfil two ‘Arrangements’ with it’s creditors in March 2000 and October 2001. The debts of the company, declared by the Directors in August 2001, were £256,000, and, almost certainly, further debts have been incurred since. If all is as it seems, it is likely that the Court will grant the Order and the papers will be passed to the Official Receiver to wind up the company. It can’t pay it’s debts.

In his programme notes last week, the majority shareholder referred to his negotiations with a consortium, presumably to sell the company for £1. A word of caution. Elsewhere in those notes, there were factual inaccuracies, or perhaps he was misquoted. In any event, some pace should be injected into those negotiations if a sale is to be concluded before next week. I have no idea who may be involved in that consortium. A lot of supporters helped make last Saturday a financial success and I should be very surprised if any of them are in negotiation with Lee Harding.

Today, the company is owned by the shareholders and it’s day-to-day administration is in the hands of the Directors, Lee Harding, Paul Farmer and Steve Eames, each, no doubt, acting in accordance with the Companies Act and the Insolvency Acts. The articles in The Observer, the Non League Bulletin and NOTLN, parts of which have been reproduced on this site, appear to be well researched and it would seem that the Officials of the Ryman League are most concerned at the current position of the company.

I imagine that immediately after the Court Hearing, the consortium with whom Lee Harding is in negotiation, or any other party with positive proposals to save the Club will declare themselves publicly. As was shown last week, without the support of the fans, it will not succeed.

I have a hunch that some people who care for the future of the Club will have taken proper professional advice from Accountants and Solicitors, checked the position with the relevant Authorities, and properly understand the various steps that must be taken. I have no doubt those Authorities will be keen to assist a serious attempt made by people with the best interests of ‘The Club’ at heart, to ensure that St. Albans City F.C. continue to play Ryman Premier League football at Clarence Park.

There can be no doubt that the position of the company, and therefore, The Club, is dire. For the moment, a thaw today and a good crowd tomorrow, supporting the various fund-raising activities of the Supporters Club to assist the payment of arrears of the players and managers wages are essential. 3 points would help.

Let next week wait until then. <p>Great board this. I can hardly contain myself.

[Webbo MFI]

You don't think he would...just to spite those who are against him...do you??

[Guest]

yup, i seem to remember the not too distant past when EFM /MFI or whatever were singing the praises of Mr Harding, but the "taking out" does this involve a trip to the UCI i wonder?

[Guest]

On the 8th one of two things could happen<p>1. The judge accepts the petition and the clerk of the court instructs the official reciever to take control of the company.<p>If this happens the recievers job is to wind the company up sell of all its assets and satisfy the creditors. The primary role of the reciever is not to encure more debt.<p>In exceptional cases the reciever may decide that the sale of the Trading name is worth more than the assets, in which case interested parties could bid for the this, but again the reciever can not incur any more debts while this process is carried through.<p>2. The directors of the limited company dispute the claims against it. If the directors are successful then the judge will dismiss the petition.<p>As the first option is the most likely what are the potential outcomes.<p>The receiver winds up the company autions of all the debts case closed - i.e Accrington Stanley<p>The receiver winds up the company and auctions of all assets case closed - A group of people reform the Club i.e Aldershot<p>The receiver decides that the value of the assets are less than the sale value of the name and sells the club on - Brighton

[Guest]

Well done everybody. Over the last few weeks or so, we have seen breathtaking incompetency followed by breathtaking incompetency. I travelled over 100 miles on Boxing Day morning to be back for the Hendon match, only to find it being called off at 12.20. The biggest match of the season revenue-wise cancelled because, to be honest, nobody could be bothered to get off their big fat arses and do something to prevent the pitch freezing over. I daresay that all of the replies to this post will be of the "blah blah blah, didn't see you doing much yourself" genre, but that would be bloody typical. The supporters of this club seem to me to be more interested in arguing amongst themselves and discussing each other's love lives than trying to save their club. Has nobody ever heard of 7 day long range weather forecasts? Why were no precautions taken in the week before Christmas to ensure that the pitch was playable? Then, there was the issue of the posters. How many of you honestly expected the despised ex-chairman to supply 1000 posters for the Christmas matches? Why, when said posters failed to materialise, did nobody go out and get a rush job done? I'll now turn my attention to the Boreham Wood match. Frozen off? Where was this mythical frost? Why was the inspection at such a stupid time in the morning? Was Clarence Park the only part of the town to get this frost, a frost so severe that it rendered the pitch unplayably dangerous? <p>This is, of course, entirely academic, because by Tuesday there will be no St Albans City Football Club. It has been mismanaged by successive groups of people consistently for more years than I care to remember. Given the size of the debts, you can arrange as many Fans United days as you like, because any receiver in his right mind would see that giving any further stays of execution would be offering nothing more than false hope. See you in the South Midlands League next season.

[GHA EFM]

One of the most unbelievable, unique, completely rubbish messages I have ever seen in my entire life. And I have seen a lot of messages. Congratulations Lee / EFM member / muppet / myfavouriteluxis100.<p>To be fair, I agree in part. Why was the undersoil heating not switched on for the two matches? Why was the pitch not retracted? Why was the patented Clarence Park Dome cover not used?<p>Long Live GHA!!!<p> <img src="graemlins/devil.gif" border="0" alt="" />

[ESG]

apparently the sapporo dome still has our retractable turning pitch so that option wasn't viable

[Guest]

I can understand the pissed-offness going on with the luxman - i travelled from Brighton on Boxing Day morning (nothing sordid, I promise) to get to the match and ended up spending all afternoon in the bar... hang on a minute... was that a bad thing? (I'm joking, before anybody jumps down my throat). Personally, I would have liked to have seen EFM and Saints Supporters walking across the pitch at midday with Barbie hairdryers trying to defrost the pitch, but we can't have everything, can we? <p>The Boreham Wood match, however... I was here at that day and... frozen??? Come off it... I know better, however, than to blame the club for this (perhaps they could have made a huge frost-proof covering from one of Knocky's shirts? Just an idea...). So... given that we live in an age of pointless witch-hunting, I blame the referee. He must have woken up Saturday morning, looked out of his window, thought "sod this for a game of soldiers", driven up to the Park and cancelled it before anybody had the chance to realise. Home in time for Gabby Yorath. Lovely, and indeed, jubbly. <p>Without wishing to sound like an old hippy though, frankly, gentlemen (and/or ladies), now is not the time for slagging matches to start. Enough's enough, or the **** goalkeeper will get angry...